VOTE

It's been a while since I've posted on here, and even my facebook and Twitter output has been almost nil over the past two weeks, due to my nice vacation, which I suppose I will end officially tomorrow by attending a university event for two hours. I think that will be a nice way to ease back into work, right before the weekend.

But the last time I checked my Twitter feed for any significant length of time, I found a link to a Guardian poll asking people to vote for their favorite TV show of the "Noughties", or 2000-2009. I did vote, for LOST, but the poll is now closed, and the results were ridiculous. At the time of my vote, LOST was doing respectably, with 3-4 percent, and my second choice, The West Wing had a few percentage points as well. They both trailed a show called QI, which I'm guessing must be British (I've never heard of it) and long-time BBC favorite Dr. Who. So, clearly the poll reflected the tastes of UKers, which is ok, since the Guardian is a U.K. publication. But the final results were absurd, clearly becoming a personal battle between fans of two shows with which I am not familiar, The Wire and Top Gear, which finished 1 and 2 with each pulling in more than 40 percent of the vote. So what was once an interesting poll was ruined.

I'm much more interested in what the smaller group of people that reads this blog thinks. As I mentioned, I would have to pick LOST as my number 1, though TWW is second only in a veritable photo-finish. The only other show that was within a whiff of those two for me is Arrested Development, which is hands-down the best comedy of the 2000s, but due to its relatively short run and comedic genre, in comparison, it just lacks the epic gravitas the first two carry so strongly for me.

Coming up with even a Top 10 list would be difficult, but other favorite shows from the past ten years that come to mind immediately would be Weeds, The Office, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Chappelle's Show, Good Eats, Iron Chef (original), House M.D., Friends, This Old House, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, American Dreams and Dirty Jobs. I might even have to throw Alias in there, though I may be slightly biased from having watched that entire series within the past few months.

I'm probably pretty well defined by my demographic, a male who was in either high school or college for eighty percent of the 2000s, with picks such as LOST, The Office, the late-night shows, FOX cartoons and the hour-long documentary segments of masculinity defined that are Dirty Jobs, Survivorman and Man vs. Wild. But I've got at least one PBS show there, a brainy food show and a couple respectable dramas, so I don't feel too fratty.

I was going to put a poll up with some TV shows to vote on, but that would be way insufficient. Just leave your thoughts in the comments.